Sam Biddle

Fresh after a midterm thrashing, Obama perhaps thought this weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Japan might be a needed respite. Instead, he was greeted by a bunch of uncomfortable robots. Shrieking robo-seals! A creepy fembot! Some strange pod car!

Obama was a great sport about it, but you can sense the man has a lot more on his mind than dipping into the Uncanny Valley—like, say, his political future, or global financial crises. Nonetheless, always cool to see POTUS with some robots—no matter how stilted the exchange. All in the diplomacy game, we suppose. [CrunchGear]